For years, George Pell was number three in the Vatican under Pope Francis and the highest-ranking minister in the history of the Catholic Church to be convicted of child molestation. However, the verdict was later overturned.
Australian Cardinal George Pell died in Rome aged 81. Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher confirmed his death on Wednesday night on his Facebook page. For years, Pell was the third minister in the Vatican under Pope Francis and the highest-ranking minister in the history of the Catholic Church to be convicted of child sexual abuse. However, in 2020 he was acquitted on appeal and released from prison.
Pell died on Tuesday night after complications from a long-planned hip operation, the Vatican’s own media portal “Vatican News” reported, among other things. The intervention was therefore planned for a long time. Last Thursday, Pell attended the funeral of the late Pope Benedict XVI. In Rome. Since the spectacular acquittal and release from prison in April 2020, the cardinal has calmed down.
Career despite suspected abuse
Pell was born on June 8, 1941 in Ballarat, Australia. He was ordained a priest in 1966 and elected auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Melbourne in 1987. In the same year he received episcopal consecration. He was Archbishop of Melbourne from 1996 to 2001 and Archbishop of Sydney from 2001 to 2014. Even so, Pell has been confronted with allegations of abuse – in 2002 he temporarily suspended his role as Archbishop of Sydney, but has rejected the allegations. Although the allegations against Pell persisted, he made a career out of the Catholic Church.
Pope John Paul II admitted Pell to the College of Cardinals in October 2003. The studied philosopher and theologian voted in agreement in the 2005 conclave, which German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI. and in the 2013 conclave that elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio – now Pope Francis.
Pell as Vatican finance chief
Pell became Francis’ confidant — not only did he put him on an advisory board, but he also made him prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy in 2014. The task: to reorganize the Vatican’s finances. So Pell became Francis’ man for the economy, which he says he always tried to avoid. But Pell had a clear perspective, Francis praised the cardinal in a television interview with private Italian broadcaster Canale 5 last December: “So he had to stay in prison for almost two years because of this slander that was against him.”
The case in which Pell was being tried in his country dates back to 1996/97, when Pell had just become archbishop of Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne. After a church service, he reportedly dismissed the two choir boys, who were 13 at the time. The testimony of a former choirboy was key to the verdict, which became public knowledge in early 2019. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
acquitted for lack of evidence
But Pell’s defense attorneys argued that the former choirboy’s testimony was insufficient to establish the cardinal’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. They also stated that after Sunday mass it was impossible for an archbishop to be alone in the sacristy with two choir boys for five or six minutes – as would have happened during a robbery. Australia’s highest court granted the appeal in April 2020 for lack of evidence. After 13 months, Pell was surprisingly a free man again – and he returned to the Vatican a few months after his release, in the midst of the corona pandemic and despite travel restrictions.
In December, Francis called Pell a great man to whom much is owed. Pell’s efforts to bring more transparency and cleanliness to Vatican finances repeatedly brought him into conflict with the old structures and habits of those in charge at the Vatican during his tenure as the Vatican’s “Minister of the Treasury”. One is Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who now faces charges of breach of trust and embezzlement before a Vatican court.
Pell’s successor in the Archdiocese of Sydney wrote on Wednesday that the cardinal’s news was “a great shock to everyone”. Many others, especially those outside the Catholic Church, are likely to remember the cardinal’s deep downfall.
(APA/dpa)